Visiting Papillon’s Devil’s island - French Guiana 2018

Papillon’s world famous Devil’s island at ”Îles du Salut” - in French Guiana (South America). Known in English as the Salvation Islands, these little Islands were anything but ”salvation” for the prisoners sent here from the French mainland by Emperor Napoleon III and the subsequent French governments. This was the French smaller version of other more famous death camps. From 1852 to 1947, some 80,000 prisoners died from disease, inhumane conditions and the guillotine on these sad isles. So much for égalité, liberté and fraternité.

The three tiny former prison islands consist of Île du Diable, Île Royale and Île St Joseph and thanks to shark infested waters they were considered escape proof and extra appropriate for political prisoners: including the French/Jewish Alfred Dreyfus - wrongly convicted of treason in 1894.

The most famous prisoner though was Henry Charrière, who became known for his epic tale of nine remarkable escapes from French Guiana’s infamous prison camps. Nicknamed Papillon (Butterfly) for a tattoo on his chest, Charrière claims that after being wrongly convicted of murder he escaped from Îles du Salut by floating toward the mainland on a sack full of coconuts and cut his way through harsh malarial jungles to flee towards freedom eastward. Papillon is portrayed by Steve McQueen in a 1973 Hollywood version of his life also starring a young Dustin Hoffman in thick glasses

Видео Visiting Papillon’s Devil’s island - French Guiana 2018 канала Martin Källstrand